In Order to Push Yemen Port Deal, Saudi-Led Coalition Threaten to Use Calibrated Force

January 31, 2019

A senior UAE official stated that the Saudi-led coalition has warned that they might be using calibrated-force against the nation’s Houthi movement so that they adhere to the UN-backed truce. As per the UN sponsored deal, it demands the Houthi rebels to pull out their forces from Yemen’s port city Hodeidah and hand it over to international organization. The deal is also applicable to the Saudi-backed government forces.

Since the UN-backed deal was reached out in December last year among the warring parties in Yemen, they both failed to withdraw their respective troops from the nation’s main port city, which has been under a ceasefire. Houthi rebels are renewing the threat of a full-blown assault on Hodeidah that could lead to famine. The port serves as a important entry point for food and humanitarian assistance.

The Houthis have charge of Hodeidah while other Yemeni groups supported by the coalition is trying to reinstate the internationally accepted government are assembled on its outskirts.

Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, stated that that the coalition might be using “calibrated force” in order to pressurize the Houthis to pull out from the strategic port city of Hodeidah. He even stated that the coalition forces have hit 10 Houthi training camps located outside the Hodeidah governorate on 30th January. He further stated that in order to maintain the truce and longing for political advancement, the UN along with the international community must pressurize Houthis to cease violations, expedite aid convoy, and progress ahead on pull out from Hodeidah city and other port areas as agreed.

Basically, the Yemen’s conflicting parties admitted to pull out from Hodeidah during the negotiations that were held in Sweden.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths has been running between the warring parties to save the deal, which is considered to be the first major diplomatic development of the nearly four-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands of people and it has pushed Yemen to the brink of starvation.